Severe back pain, limited motion, and nerve damage may be caused by injured, degraded, or diseased spinal anatomy. Affected spinal joints, and particularly discs and ligaments, can be difficult to treat externally and may necessitate surgery. Traditional surgical procedures for pathologies located deep within the body can cause significant trauma to the intervening tissues. These open procedures often require a long incision, extensive muscle stripping, prolonged retraction of tissues, denervation and devascularization of tissue.
Some minimally invasive alternatives, such as arthroscopic, endoscopic and micro-surgical techniques, can reduce the destruction of healthy tissue. The site of a pathology is accessed through portals rather than through a significant incision, thus preserving the integrity of the intervening tissues. These minimally invasive techniques often require only local anesthesia, thus avoiding general anesthesia with its increased expense, post-operative recovery time and risk. Minimally invasive surgical techniques are particularly desirable for spinal and neurosurgical applications because of the need for access to locations deep within the body and the potential range of damage to vital intervening tissues.
Various configurations of tissue retractors have been used to reposition and protect non-targeted soft tissue, muscle and neural elements. Improvements to the devices and methods of tissue retraction are still needed.